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The House Dimir
The House Dimir Some say it never existed. Some say it was destroyed again and again. It is a guild of secrecy, manipulation and underhanded deals, a shadowy organization operating behind the scenes to twist Ravnica to its own ends. The guild provides espionage, smuggling, burglary, counter-intelligence, assassination and other illegal services for the Ravnican populace, although its patrons are unaware that they are in fact employing the guild, instead thinking they are employing guildless mercenaries or another guild such as the Rakdos. The guild is so secretive that even its own agents often do not know who they truly work for. Quote: "Fear not. Your life will not go unlived." Common Knowledge: '''In the dark, slick corridors of the undercity lurks the unfathomable network of the Dimir guild. House Dimir is Ravnica’s dark but open secret: the populace knows Dimir exists but they pretend it doesn’t. The Dimir’s role in Ravnica is to provide covert services that other guilds can’t or won’t, using their secrecy as both weapon and defense. Dimir is hidden even from itself, using pockets of covert agents who are aware of only a few other contacts. Dimir agents leave no trace, destroying memories of witnesses to their crimes, and even going so far as to eliminate their own memories of their assignments. ''Duskmantle: ''Restored but Undisclosed. Duskmantle, the Dimir guildhall, fell into disrepair after the previous guildmaster, Szadek, fell from power and the knowledge of how to access it was lost. Duskmantle has been recreated in a new location deep within the Ravnican undercity, shielded by memory wards. Few know of the existence of this House Dimir nerve center, and even fewer know how to locate it. Many who learn the way lose that memory soon after. ''Lazav, the Dimir Mastermind. ''Lazav is a shapeshifting mage who serves as the nexus of telepathic impressions of the entire Dimir network. He (or she, or it) shapeshifts into a variety of guises as his needs and plans require; he may step out into the Ravnican streets as an elderly widow to eavesdrop at the bazaar, become a vedalken hussar to sidestep a checkpoint, or transform into a Tin Street merchant to deceive a passing noble. Some Dimir agents believe that Lazav plots against Niv-Mizzet to discern the dragon’s hidden endgame and twist it for his own purposes. '''Adventurers and Icons: '''Dimir love adventurers, and adventurers love working with the Dimir. The tricks is knowing they were hired by the Dimir or are manipulated to do their busy-work. But that is the perfect state of affairs, for adventurers that hang too much around the Undercity tend to dissapear. '''Allies: Everyone hates to admit, but sooner or later they will need the Dimir services. Enemies: '''Sooner or later, everyone will be infiltrated or attacked by the Dimir. '''History: House Dimir was ruled over by the ancient vampire Szadek. The vampire was one of the ten paruns that signed the Guildpact and remained in charge of the guild for the subsequent 10,000 years. One of the crucial clauses of the Guildpact was that none of the signatories (including Szadek) could reveal the existence of the Dimir to Ravnica's people, protecting the guild's anonymity while forcing it to remain hidden. This created a flaw in the Guildpact's structure that would eventually allow it to be broken. Officially, the guild does not exist. The Ravnican people generally believe that there are only nine guilds and that if there ever was a tenth, it dissolved thousands of years ago. The name Dimir is not known by most people and those that do know it believe it to be a myth, childrens' story or a paranoid conspiracy theory. This misinformation is actively propagated by the Dimir themselves as a method for avoiding suspicion. The guild operates on a strictly need-to-know basis. At the top of its hierarchy is Szadek, the lord of secrets. Only he is fully aware of all of the guild's activities. Beneath Szadek are the necrosages, who oversee the guild's activities from Duskmantle, the house of shadow. They manipulate the flow of information, keeping the guild informed on all things whilst keeping the rest of the plane ignorant. Few individuals are ever allowed to meet the guild's leaders, as instead a network of middlemen are employed to pass on messages to cells of field operatives. Agents at the very bottom of the guild only meet a mysterious individual in a back alley that gives them some basic information on their target and nothing else. The Dimir's guildmages use their magic to influence the minds of others. They can send messages to operatives over distances or strike people with amnesia, magically alter memories or even perform lobotomies on victims to cover their tracks. The Dimir also practice necromancy, creating undead minions such as skeletons and wights to carry out missions. Such minions are employed as they are single-minded, easy to create and dispose of, cannot be interrogated in the event of capture and are easily blamed on the Golgari instead. Spirits are also used by the Dimir to pass on messages, carry out surveillance invisibly or even to possess important figures such as judges and senators. Nobody is beyond the reach of House Dimir. '''The True Danger: '''Just don't relax. It isn't over yet.